Thinkfinity - free lesson plans & educational resources through the Verizon Foundation
Connexions - a place to view and share educational material where anyone may view or contribute
P2PU - Peer 2 Peer University - where people work together to learn a particular topic by completing tasks, assessing individual and group work, and providing constructive feedback
EPICEd - national online community of practice that provides a dynamic environment for educators to collaborate, share their expertise, and have access to resources
21st Century Skills - combines focus on student outcomes with innovative support systems to help students master the multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the 21st century.
Wiki - allows users to freely create and edit Web page content
Merlot - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
Blog - a web site where you write stuff on an ongoing basis
Module 2 Notes
Respond to the questions on this Google Form for your Module 2 notes.
Module 3 Notes
Respond to the questions on this Google Form for your Module 3 notes.
Merlot Reflection - I found Merlot to be a somewhat useful tool. While there is definitively an abundance of resources on the Merlot site, I didn't find the content builder to be as intuitive as I was hoping. In the future, I think I would continue to use it if some of my colleagues whom I share content with used it as well. Otherwise, I don't think I would continue to use the Merlot site consistently.
Module 4 Notes
Repost the link to your Google Docs Web Resource List - Web Resource List
yes, but I had trouble retaining the formatting from the template
templates and cloning available
layout issues are avoided as documents are organized by tabs and subtabs
modules and plugins and themes databases available
Ability to Meet Universal Access Requirements
by posting content only
some - posting content with collaboration
yes - if not directly through the site itself, definitely from the personal collections.
yes - resources for coaching, mentoring, and ILPs (Individual Learning Plans)
yes - by easily organizing and sharing resources with students/parents
workshop module - designed for facilitating online peer reviews of documents
Appropriateness for Your Purposes
very appropriate as my students are already familiar with using google
somewhat appropriate - collaboration may be more challenging for my students
appropriate for communication with colleagues, not students
not really because I'm not willing to pay for a site when free ones are available
very appropriate - I love the way it organizes web content
This site seems too complex for my middle school students
Likelihood I'll Use This
very likely since I already use gmail, google docs, etc. I also like how it saves changes automatically.
somewhat likely - maybe for my own use if not for student collaboration
not very, only if colleagues begin to use it to share lessons (see my Module 3 Notes)
not likely after my free membership expires
likely - this is my favorite so far, but I will need to play around with it a bit
probably not - this appears to be a more powerful site than I would need or want to set up and maintain
Review of the above tools:
My favorite of the new sites I explored in Module 4 is definitely LiveBinders. I really like the way it organizes information from the internet without having to cut and past or send ambiguous links. I haven't tried using it myself yet, but I am really intrigued by how easily it appears to capture web content. I look forward to experimenting with LiveBinders. Of all the above tools, I will likely use Google Sites most often. Even though it is very simple and basic, I think my students will find it to be the easiest to use. My students have short attention spans, so they will loose focus quickly if a site is too complicated to navigate. I like the idea of incorporating some of these more complex sites into my curriculum, but unfortunately not all of my students have access to the internet outside of class, and I don't have enough computers for all my students in my classroom. So, for now, I can only use these resources to supplement my instruction, instead of as a required component of the course.
Module 2 Notes
Module 3 Notes
Merlot Reflection - I found Merlot to be a somewhat useful tool. While there is definitively an abundance of resources on the Merlot site, I didn't find the content builder to be as intuitive as I was hoping. In the future, I think I would continue to use it if some of my colleagues whom I share content with used it as well. Otherwise, I don't think I would continue to use the Merlot site consistently.
Module 4 Notes
Review of the above tools:
My favorite of the new sites I explored in Module 4 is definitely LiveBinders. I really like the way it organizes information from the internet without having to cut and past or send ambiguous links. I haven't tried using it myself yet, but I am really intrigued by how easily it appears to capture web content. I look forward to experimenting with LiveBinders. Of all the above tools, I will likely use Google Sites most often. Even though it is very simple and basic, I think my students will find it to be the easiest to use. My students have short attention spans, so they will loose focus quickly if a site is too complicated to navigate. I like the idea of incorporating some of these more complex sites into my curriculum, but unfortunately not all of my students have access to the internet outside of class, and I don't have enough computers for all my students in my classroom. So, for now, I can only use these resources to supplement my instruction, instead of as a required component of the course.